Opera Reviews
28 March 2024
Untitled Document

A Paisiello rarity proves entertaining in Martina Franca



by Silvia Luraghi
Paisiello: La grotta di Trofonio
Festival della Valle d'Itria, Martina Franca
31 July 2016

With the opera buffa La grotta di Trofonio, co-produced with Naples’ Teatro San Carlo, Martina Franca’s Festival della Valle d’Itria paid tribute to composer Giovanni Paisiello in the bicentenary of his death. The comedy, with a libretto by Giuseppe Palomba, premiered at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in November 1785, just weeks after the premiere of the Salieri opera of the same name at Vienna’s Burgtheater.

Salieri's libretto by Giovanni Battista Casti provided the source for Palomba, who reworked and deeply modified it. In the original, two sisters are in love with two friends, each of them chooses the one whose inclinations are similar to hers. But the two men visit the cave of magician Trofonio, who changes their attitudes. Then it is the turn of the girls to visit the cave and change, until the original situation is restored in the end. To this, Palomba added two other characters, the earlier girlfriends of the two men, who had set out to find them, and also reached the magician’s cave. In the end, the two additional women decide not to pursue their original plan, and marry, one with Piastrone, the sisters’ father, and the other with Trofonio himself, who turns out to be a Greek nobleman, while his cave becomes a castle, which offers the setting for the final four-fold marriage. Casti’s libretto has been considered a possible source for Da Ponte’s libretto of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, but the addition of the two women by Palomba changed dramatically the structure and the meaning of the opera, whose comic side was greatly highlighted.

Paisiello’s opera enjoyed some success in the two decades following its premiere, and was also performed in Vienna and in Paris, but has not been revived in modern times. The possible effect on a modern audience depends very much on the theatrical skills of the singers, as well as on the stage director. The current production, which will also be shown in Naples in the fall, was directed by Alfonso Antoniozzi, who, relying on his extensive experience as a buffo bass, gave the action the proper comic pace.

He was supported by a cast which combined a number of experienced colleagues (bass Roberto Scandiuzzi as Trofonio, soprano Daniela Mazzuccato, and baritone Domenico Colaianni) with young and committed singers (sopranos Caterina Di Tonno and Angela Nisi, mezzo Benedetta Mazzucato, tenor Matteo Mezzaro, and baritone Giorgio Caoduro), and the final result kept the audience entertained for over two hours. Set designer Dario Gessati also contributed to the success of the production by providing a simple and practical setting to the action.

In the pit, Giuseppe Grazioli conducted the Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia with somewhat uniform tempi, which would have benefited from a more lively baton.

Text © Silvia Luraghi
Photo © Festival della Valle d'Itria
Support us by buying from amazon.com!